Pomp and Circumstance

There is a little bit of long story about why I have "Pomp and Circumstance" on my playlist on my iPod.  I have not been able to get out and walk much because of the heat. So I have been "dancing around the house" to get exercise. I shuffle my music and a bit ago, "Pomp and Circumstance" came on. I have to say that it brought tears to my eyes thinking about all of our wonderful young people who are going to miss their regular graduations this year. I didn't go to my college or Master's graduation ceremonies as I just wanted the diploma. I didn't get the true significance of this ceremony until I became an administrator. When I was the Superintendent in Douglas, getting to give every student their diploma was so amazing to me. As a Board member in Gilbert, it has just been reinforced. To all of our wonderful young people who will miss the "regular" ceremony this year, I hope you will look back on this as being something that will go down in history and you have been a part of it. So download "Pomp and Circumstance" and walk through your house and be proud of what you have done!!! I am proud of all of you!!

And now for the story of why Pomp and Circumstance is on my playlist.  The last year I was in Douglas, I got a call from Marsha at St. Luke's the afternoon of Baccalaureate asking if if I  could download the song as she couldn't find her copy of it.  Because Douglas is largely Hispanic, it is also largely Catholic. Baccalaureate is always held on the playground at Loretto Catholic School on Sunday evening before graduation with a Mass and various seniors doing the readings, etc.  There is always a huge turn out for this even with students who are not Catholic.  They always play Pomp and Circumstances as the students walk in and then walk out.  It is open air so can be heard for several blocks.

Now I like a lot of music and I have many different genres of music on my iPod. I listen to a music a lot and have some songs on there that aren't appropriate for young people and I never share any of them with anyone unless I know they would be okay with them.  Of course, my favorite is Tequila Sheila! 

So I dutifully downloaded Pomp and Circumstance and put it in a separate folder.  I took it to the tech guy and showed him where it was and because I knew him quite well, I told him to please be really careful because there were some songs on my iPod that shouldn't be played.   I knew he would be very careful but I was a nervous wreck the entire Mass worrying about Tequila Sheila or something being accidentally blared as the students left the service!  I knew I was retiring, but certainly didn't want to go out with that kind of a bang so to speak!!!

Listening to it yesterday, brought back that memory, but it  also made me teary for our students who aren't able to have a real graduation this year.  

I was able to share it from You Tube!